The first photo below is a picture of my brother David with the antelope he shot last August near Craig, CO. I took this picture and sent it to Cabela's (who we booked the hunt through) and they published it in their 2005 World Wide Hunting trips catalogue (middle picture page 30). I am proud of my brother and his antelope. The next photo is of me with the antelope I shot.

Both are fine trophies and you have good reason to be proud of the antelope you guys killed. I never tire of the antelopes dress code.

I've hunted near Craig several times in the late 80's for mule deer, loved the country and the warm welcome the residents of Craig extended to the hunters.

-Ron

Hey rwj, Nice Antelopes and your brothers "smile" is just great.

You seem to be a bit "short" in details concerning both the hunt and the kills though.

I see one rifle but no bullet holes? How did you all pull that off? Road kills? (Only kidding.)

Hot Core: We did have an excellent hunt. We hunted with Elkhorn Outfitters near Craig on private land. We saw 100s of antelope in one day (at slightly higher elevation we also saw a lot elk and muledeer). There were elk sheds in the sage where we were hunting antelope.

My brother's smile speaks for itself...he was using a M70 in .270Win, he shot one 130 gr. Nosler BT at maybe 100 yds and his animal dropped on the spot. His measured about 78.5 B&C points, which is not not record book but very respectable..of eight antelope killed during this three-day hunt, his was the biggest. I was less choosy (after twice missing a big goat at 300 yrs ), I shot mine inside of a 100 yrs with my .300 Wby using 150 gr NPs. He measured a hair over 75 points. Mine staggard a ways before falling down. They are beautiful specimens, they make great shoulder mounts, and they are very tasty. I do think that the ballistic tips in appropriate weight bullets (130 grs +/-) are well suited for antelope. The NP I used works well but the toughness of the NP is not required.

Grizzly1: You are absolutely right about the fashion statements made by antelope hunters...I truely felt like a large glowing bass plug, or a ball of salmon eggs, wearing that shirt. That shirt hurt my eyes.

Nice bucks!!! Good photography also. Is there public land around that area?

Elk Hunter: Thank you...and yes there is plenty of public land and there are plenty of animals on public land there, for the most part. However...and I know this can be a touchy political issue here on AR...I was hunting under the Guaranteed Colorado Ranching for Wildlife tags program...This, in my mind, is one of the greatest wildlife programs out there...You have to pay to hunt on private land, huge blocks of land, but you are guaranteed a license/tag throught the land owner/outfitter (who are frequently different people..the outfitter is not the owner). These tracts of land have huge numbers of animals on them and access to those animals is gained by paying the land owner/outfitter. I think residents and non-residents are treated equal except NRs pay out-of-state lic/tag fees. The Ranching for Wildlife outfitters set their own seasons and limits (more or less). On public land it is different: most hunts are through a public drawing or lottery. So to hunt antelope on public land in Colorado, you have to draw your tag (I think). Public land get hammered anywhere in America, and that includes Colorado. There are a lot of facets to the Ranching for Wildlife Program...but I will say that what ever they are doing they should extend it to the entire state....this program allows for very long hunting seasons and very low hunting pressure at any given time, resulting in large numbers of animals that are not harassed. I think it is an excellent program.

Hey rwj, That sounds good so far. How did you all hunt them? On foot, riding around, have to put the old "sneak" on them? Any chance you tried waving the old White Hanky trick to draw them in.

Not trying to put you on the spot, I've never hunted an Antelope and the methods and techniques different people use are always interesting to me.

Thanks for the info.

Hot Core: You are not putting me on the spot at all.

My brother shot his first. We initally parked the truck and walked to the top of a high knob...the terrian is rolling short grass with low thornbush, cactus, and sage. (You do not pay attention to the thorny plants until you start crawling on your hands and knees, or on your belly, and then they are everywhere.) At first I stayed back with an apprentice guide and my brother and the outfitter crept off maybe 1000 meters to a vantage point to look down on an area. We watched them move around..sometimes they would go out of sight and sometime I could watch them at a distance. They were out there about two hours before the outfitter called on a radio for the apprentice to come and get them with the truck.

They had spotted a group of bucks that had a couple of shooters in it and we were going to try and drive a couple of miles around to get closer to them without spooking them. We backed the truck around and drove more or less in a flanking maneuver with the animals out of sight.

We parked the truck, walked maybe 500 meters and spotted the group of bucks walking back towards where my brother and the outfitter were initially watching them. I could see the animals now. We stayed still and out of sight but watched them slowy walk over a low ridge about 3/4 of a mile away and when the last one past out of sight over the ridge the outfitter, my brother and myself made a fast beeline for that ridge. We crawled up to just peak over the ridge and the animals were bedded down maybe 75 meters away. I think we were just hoping that they were walking slowly and that they would be in rifle range by the time we got to the ridge. Anyway, my brother and the outfitter snuck into a shooting position and when the antelope got up, my brother shot the biggest one.

Later that day, after two or three failed stalks, I missed a big buck twice at long range (300 yards) over a couple hour period. He left the country all together on the second miss! I ended up seeing a buck chasing three does...and he basically ran right up to me...he wanted those does. That is the one I ended up shooting.

We did drive around quite a bit, and we did see a lot of goats from the truck. But most of it involved lengthy spot-and-stalk sessions. I did not describe all the failed stalks we had that day...and there were several. There were so many animals though that you could screw up a dozen times and still shoot a good buck.

There were 8 hunters at the outfit we were hunting with on this three day hunt, and all eight hunters shot their antelope by 5 pm the first day. It was an excellent hunt.

Hey rwj, Thanks again. That made it much easier to visualize the Hunt you all had.

Congratulations again to both you and "Smiley".

I believe that area of CO takes around 6 points to draw a tag. Thats 6 years. But if you have the dollars you can hunt it next year. That;s the problem with Ranching for wildlife. Great opportunity to hunt great property with little wait. Downside is the finacial benefits for outfitters is starting to dry up private land that you could get on for a marginal trespass fee. This year we lost a 150 acres ranch that we have hunted for 8 years. It had no ranching value but was bought up buy an outfitter for hunting.

Have hunted Craig almost annually since 1978. The Ranching for Wildlife program is now only for residents. Out-of-staters may buy their licenses and access through the outfitters. Initially, there were some "cowboys" in the program, but have pretty much been weeded out. My partner and I try every year for one specific ranch and get on it about every three years. The staff treats us well and often tell us of specific animals seen. We feel more like paying customers than RFWs.

prof242: So as a resident you can go directly to a RFW landowner and gain access to that property and use tags that qualify for the RFW program? If that is the case, that sounds like a good deal for residents. As a non-residents I do like the program and any money that I spend is well worth it...an easy inexpensive hunt in Alaska can cost $2000 (or more) for residents, and as a result my perspective on hunt costs have changed since I moved to Alaska. Every hunting opportunity in the RFW program that I have looked at seemed like a good deal to me.

I saw a similar size animal 2 years ago near Craig - he was watching us from about 60 yards on private land about 100 yards from the public hunting area during deer season.

They are certainly good looking, your was tasty too?

specneeds: The place is crawling with antelope.

I absolutely loved the way my animal tastes and I look forward to shooting another one..they are good for the freezer.

Very nice goats and great pictures. Antelope sure are fun aren't they. I absolutely love watching them run. They seem to flow over the ground. They remind me of a school of fish or a flock of birds.

Jeff